The Raggedy Man & the Regal Girl
by jg16395
Summary: The Doctor and Romana have prevented the End of Time, but at a cost - the life of the 10th Doctor. After he regenerates, the TARDIS crash-lands into the garden of Amelia Pond. Now, they must confront a foreboding prophetic warning from Prisoner Zero; "The Universe is cracked. The Pandorica will open. Silence will fall..." A/N: Don't own Doctor Who - need you ask? Series Five.
1. Prologue

**A/N: Hello...and welcome to Part III of my "Raggedy & Regal" saga. For those of you not in the know, this is a follow-up to "The Final Day" (Part I) and "The Lady's Return" (Part II). I strongly recommend reading those first to make sense of this. Then again, if you just want a good read - and you like the Doctor/Romana pairing - carry on.**

* * *

Prologue

**It** was a very peaceful night in Leadworth. The only sound that could be heard outside was a slight breeze. Every denizen of the village was fast and sound asleep. That is...every denizen except a seven-year-old Scottish red-head girl by the name of Amelia Jessica Pond, whose eyes were closed and hands were pressed together in a prayer gesture.

"Dear Santa," she began, "thank you for the dolls, and the pencils...and the fish. It's Easter now, so I hope I didn't wake you...but honest, it _is_ an emergency. There's a crack in my wall. Aunt Sharon says it's just an ordinary crack...but I know it's not...because...at night there's...voices...so please, _please,_ could you send someone to fix it? Or a Policeman? Or..." Her prayer was interrupted by a wheezing, groaning sound, followed by that of a crash. The girl's eyes snapped open. "Back in a moment." She took a look out of her bedroom window, and spotted a police box that had landed, on top of where the shed had been, on its side, doors facing upwards. "Thank you, Santa," she whispered in gratitude. She put on her Wellington boots and headed into the garden...

*DW*

**When** the girl finally got close enough for closer inspection of the box, the doors swung open...out of which flew two grappling hooks, which landed on the nearby haystack. Sometime later, a black-haired raggedy man lifted himself out of the box as though he had just climbed the whole height of Ben Nevis, followed by a red-haired woman clad in a regal-looking golden brown pinafore dress. They both took notice of the girl staring up at them.

"Could I have an apple?" asked the man, a crazed look of joy plastered on his face. "All I can think about! Apples...I love apples. Maybe I'm having a craving?!"

"Funny," spoke the woman in a wry voice, though she too had an insane grin on her face. "I can remember the days when you would have a craving for Jellybabies, love. You'd offer them to just about anyone."

"Are you two OK?" asked Amelia, worried that they had injured themselves.

"We're fine," the woman assured her as the pair climbed out of the box. "We just had a fall all the way down to the Library. Climbing back up is like climbing a mountain."

"You're soaking wet," Amelia observed. How could you get soaking wet in a Library?

"We were in the Swimming Pool," the raggedy man clarified. Now Amelia was confused.

"You said you were in the Library!"

"Thanks to _him,"_ the woman told her, pointing to the raggedy man, "so was the Swimming Pool. I really must get him to move it."

"Are you the Police?" the girl questioned them.

"Not the last time I checked," the regal woman replied.

"Why? Did you call the Police?" the man answered with a question of his own.

"Did you come about the crack in my wall?" asked Amelia, deciding to cut to the root of the problem she was faced with.

"What crack would that be?" asked the regal woman. But before Amelia could reply, she was cut off by the raggedy man letting out a gasp of pain and falling to the floor.

"Are you alright, Mister?" asked Amelia.

"I'm fine," the man replied. "It's OK. This is all perfectly norm-" But he hiccupped before letting out a breath of golden Light.

"Who are you?" Amelia finally questioned. Most people did not breathe golden-coloured Light out of their mouths.

"I don't know yet," he told her, his attention half-focused on his glowing hands. "I'm still cooking. Does it scare you?"

"No, it just looks a bit weird."

"He meant the crack," the woman interjected sharply. "Does the crack scare you?"

Amelia nodded in admittance. "Yes."

"Well then!" the man announced. "No Time to lose! I'm the Doctor and this is my fiancé, Romana. Do everything we tell you, don't ask stupid questions and don't wander off!" the now-identified Doctor instructed, before spinning and walking headlong into a haystack.

"You alright?" Amelia asked in worry.

"It's alright," Romana assured her soothingly. "He just has a terrible sense of direction."

"Oi!" protested the Doctor, while Romana and Amelia burst out laughing...


	2. Prisoner Zero has Escaped!

Prisoner Zero has Escaped!

**Amelia** stepped towards the Doctor to hand him the apple he'd asked for. "If you're a Doctor, why does your box say 'Police?'" she asked the two strangers. The Doctor just looked at her, while Romana gave her an amused smile.

The elder Time Lord took a bite out of the apple...and spat it out moments later, much to Romana's disgust. _"That's_ disgusting," he told Amelia. "What is that?"

"An apple," the girl replied. It _was_ what he'd asked for, wasn't it?

"Apples're rubbish. I hate apples," he decided.

"You said you loved them," Amelia reminded him in confusion.

"Apparently not," Romana cut in, before turning to the Doctor with an idea in her mind. "What about yoghurt, Doctor?"

"Yoghurt? I like yoghurt. Yoghurt's my favourite! Give me yoghurt," he rambled. So Amelia headed for the fridge, pulled out a carton of yoghurt and handed it to him. He ripped off the top and gulped the contents down. That got spat out, too. "I _hate_ yoghurt," he amended. "It's just _stuff_...with _bits_ in!"

"You said it was your favourite!" Amelia protested.

"New mouth...new rules," he told her. "It's like eating after brushing your teeth – everything tastes wr-ARRGHH!" He cried out, twitching violently.

"What is it? What's wrong with you?" questioned Amelia.

"Wrong with _me?"_ the Doctor replied, affronted. "It's not _my_ fault! Why can't you give me any decent food? You're Scottish – fry something!"

"Rude, Doctor," Romana scolded him, as Amelia headed for the cupboard to retrieve the frying pan. "Rude and not ginger..."

*DW*

**"****Ah!** Bacon!" the Doctor grinned. He cut off a piece of the rasher with his knife and placed it in his mouth...which he promptly spat back onto the plate, much to Amelia's shock. "That's bacon. Are you trying to poison me?"

*DW*

**Next** up, baked beans. The Doctor took a forkful of them...before rushing over to the sink to spit them out.

"Beans are _evil!"_ he gasped, revulsion prominent in his voice. _"Bad, bad, beans!"_

*DW*

**"****Bread** and butter! _Now_ you're talking!" the Doctor whispered in reverence.

"I hope so," Romana muttered conspiringly to Amelia, who grimaced. But no sooner had the Doctor taken a bit out of it, than he had rushed to the door to throw it out. Somewhere along the line, Romana could have sworn that she heard a cat screech in the distance. "You don't happen to have any Jellybabies I could snack on, do you?" she asked Amelia.

*DW*

**"****We've** got some carrots," Amelia told the Doctor hopefully. But he just stared at her.

_"__Carrots?_ Are you _insane?"_ he gaped. Suddenly he jumped as an idea came into his head. "No, wait, hang on! I know what I need! I need...I need...I need...fish fingers...and custard!"

Romana just gawped at him on a half-eaten Jellybaby. Now he was taking eccentricity to the extreme. But somehow...she didn't mind...

*DW*

**Sure** enough, moments later the Doctor was digging into his self-realised concoction, while Romana contented herself to a bag of Jellybabies. He smirked as he took a gulp from the bowl of custard, and the smirk grew wider when his fiancé placed one of the sweets in the custard and ate it.

"Funny," Amelia remarked, looking at the pair of Time Lords as she found herself a carton of ice cream to satisfy herself.

"Are we?" asked the Raggedy Doctor. She nodded. "Good...funny's good. What's your name?"

"Amelia Pond," the girl answered.

"Beautiful name," Romana remarked. "Like a name from a Fairytale."

"Like yours?" asked Amelia, smiling at the older ginger. "Romana, wasn't it?"

Romana nodded at the younger ginger. "It's actually a shortened version of my real one," she told her.

"Really?" asked the girl, to which the Time Lady nodded. "What's that?"

"Romanadvoratrelundar," replied Romana, to which Amelia stared in awe. "Though it's best just to call me Romana."

"Either way, it sounds like the name of a Queen," she remarked with a smile, before adding; "You even look like one."

"Thank you," the Time Lady told her. "I ought to start up a Club – 'Gingers of the Galaxies.' You'd already be in it, Amelia." Amelia smiled a wide smile. But before either ginger could say anymore on starting 'Gingers of the Galaxies,' the Doctor cut in.

"Are we in Scotland, Amelia?" he asked curiously.

"No," Amelia sighed. "I had to move to England – it's rubbish."

"I'm more of a France person myself," Romana admitted, at which Amelia's eyes widened in a curious manner. "Paris was one of the best cities I've ever been to." She trailed off with a reminiscent stare into empty Space, before refocusing on the others around her. "But perhaps I ought to take a look at Scotland sometime. Anyway, what about your parents? I'd have thought the crash would have woken them up."

"I don't have a mum and dad," Amelia told her sadly, "just an aunt."

"We don't even have any aunts," the Doctor told her.

"You're lucky."

"In some ways," Romana told her. One of the few consolations of watching your people burn in the hottest of fires was that there would be no strict or overbearing relatives breathing down your necks to tell you what to do or what not to do. "So where _is_ your aunt?"

"She's out," Amelia replied, as a statement of fact.

"She left you all alone?" asked Romana, appalled that Amelia's aunt wouldn't even find a babysitter, even if she and the Doctor would probably have had problems if she had.

"I'm not _scared."_

"Course you're not," the Doctor cut in once more. "You're not scared of anything. Box falls out of the sky, man and woman fall out of the box, man eats fish custard while woman eats Jellybabies...and look at you! Just sitting there! So you know what we think?"

"What?" asked Amelia curiously.

"Must be one hell of a scary crack in your wall..."

*DW* **_Amelia's room..._** *DW*

**"****You've** had some Cowboys in here," the Doctor commented, once he'd got a look at the crack. "Not _actual_ Cowboys," he added, "though that _can_ happen."

"I used to hate apples," Amelia told them. "So my mum put faces on them." She showed them an apple that had just such a face.

"She sounds good, your mum," he replied. "I'll keep it for later."

Meanwhile, Romana had her attention completely focused on the crack in the wall. "Well, the wall's solid, and the crack isn't very deeply embedded inside it. Question 2 – where is this draft coming from?"

The Doctor pointed his Sonic Screwdriver at the crack and activated it. After a few moments, he stopped. "Wibbly-wobbly, Timey-wimey-"

"Timey-_what?!"_ Romana asked him incredulously. "Timey-_wimey?!"_

"Best phrase I could think of," he excused, at which Romana just rolled her eyes. He then turned back to Amelia. "You know what the crack is?"

"What?" she replied, completely nonplussed.

"It's a crack," the Doctor told her. Romana rolled her eyes again. "But we'll tell you something funny. If you knocked this wall down, the crack would stay put...because the crack isn't in the wall."

"Where is it then?"

"Everywhere, in everything," Romana told her. "It's in the Universe itself. Two parts of Space and Time are being pressed together right inside the wall of your bedroom, which means...there's something on the other side."

"That's where the voices are coming from?" Amelia asked her, to which the Time Lady nodded. Just then, a deep rumbling growl was heard by all three occupants of the room. The Doctor took a nearby nighttime glass, emptied it of water and pressed it to the crack.

Moments later, the growling voice could be heard more clearly; "Prisoner Zero has escaped!"

"Prisoner Zero?"

"'Prisoner Zero has escaped,'" Amelia quoted. "That's what I heard. What does it mean?"

"Prisoner Zero has escaped!" the voice repeated.

"What you have on the other side of the crack is a Prison, out of which a prisoner has broken," Romana clarified grimly, "which means we need to open the crack all the way to snap it shut again." She sighed as she turned to Amelia. "You know when grown-ups tell you everything's going to be fine, and you think they're probably lying to make you feel better?"

"Yes," the girl muttered in resentment.

"Would you believe me if I told you the same thing?" Romana asked her. "And if I swore on Gingers of the Galaxies?" Amelia nodded with a smile. "Then everything's going to be fine." She took Amelia's hand as the Doctor pointed the Sonic and activated it once more. At once, the crack opened as wide as possibly could, and the growling voices blared through the room.

"Prisoner Zero has escaped!" the voice said over and over again.

"Hello? Helloooo?" the Doctor called into the crack. Soon, the trio were confronted with a giant eyeball – one which Romana recognised as belonging to an Atraxi. The Atraxi fired a bolt of energy at the Doctor's leg, making him double over as the crack closed again.

"Well, the crack's now shut," Romana said. "Or rather, more shut than it was before."

"What was that?" asked Amelia in fear. "Was that Prisoner Zero?"

"It's more like to be his Atraxi Prison Ward," Romana told her. "And he just sent us a message."

"'Prisoner Zero has escaped,'" the Doctor read from his folded-out wallet of psychic paper. "But why tell us?"

"Doctor..." Romana spoke hesitantly. "Maybe he escaped through here."

With that, they rushed out of Amelia's room and onto the landing. "It's difficult...brand new me. Nothing works yet," he told them. "But there's something I'm missing." He turned his head. "The corner of my eye." But before he could do or say any more, the sound of the TARDIS Cloister Bell rang out.

"The TARDIS Cloister Bell!" Romana gasped. "Imminent disaster!"

"No, no, no, no, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO!" cried the Doctor as he rushed down the stairs and out into the Garden...

*DW*

**"****We've** got to get back in there!" the elder Time Lord shouted. "The Engines are phasing! IT'S GONNA BURN!" His voice rose to a scream with the last three words.

"But it's just a _box!"_ Amelia protested. "How can a box have _engines?!"_

"It's not a box, Amelia!" Romana told her as she hauled herself onto the threshold of the door. "It's the best Time Machine ever!" Mind you, that part was only true because there were no other TARDISes left.

"What, a real one?" the girl scoffed, though in the scoff was awe. "You two have a _real_ Time Machine?!"

"We'll _still_ have one if we get it stabilised!" the Time Lady replied.

"A five-minute hop into the future should do it!" the Doctor finished.

"Can I come?" Amelia asked hopefully.

"Sorry, Amelia," Romana told her sadly. "Too dangerous. Give us five minutes, alright? We'll be right back."

"People _always_ say that," the girl muttered resentfully. At this, the Doctor hopped off of the threshold and fixed her with a stare.

"Are we people?" he asked her. "Do we even _look_ like people? Trust me – I'm the Doctor!" He walked back to the TARDIS and pushed Romana inside.

The Time Lady fell with a scream of terror, followed by a splash. Moments later came a yell; _"NOT FUNNY, DOCTOR!"_

"OH, YES IT IS!" he shouted back. Eventually, he managed to haul himself back into the TARDIS after collecting the grappling hooks and threw himself in with a scream; "GERONIMO!" With that, the doors of the TARDIS snapped shut, and the Timeship disappeared.

What the Girl Who Waited didn't know was that the five minutes would be a long and arduous twelve years before the Raggedy Doctor and the Regal Romana returned...


	3. Five Minutes?

Five Minutes?

**The** TARDIS once again materialised in Amelia's garden, this time upright. When the door opened, a mixture of smoke and steam came billowing out, followed by the Doctor and Romana.

"Amelia!" the Doctor shouted. "Amelia, we worked out what it was! We know what we were missing! You've got to get out of there!" No reply was heard, so the Time Lords bolted for the door. However, the Sonic Screwdriver proved itself to be on the blink, so it was a while before it opened the door. When it did, both the Doctor and Romana rushed inside. "Amelia?! Amelia, are you alright?! Are you there?!" he called as he sped up the stairs, stopping next to the room they'd failed to notice the last time they were there.

"Prisoner Zero's here," the Time Lord muttered loudly, before raising his voice. "PRISONER ZERO IS HERE! PRISONER ZERO IS HERE, DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME?! PRISONER ZERO IS-" But before he could shout any more, he felt Romana slump onto his shoulder. To find out why, he turned around...only to take a Cricket bat to the face, knocking him out cold and sending his world black...

*DW* **_Romana's POV..._** *DW*

**Romana** woke up to the sound of a woman's voice. Opening her eyes, she found that the voice belonged to a ginger-haired Policewoman.

"White male, mid-twenties, accompanied by white female, late teens, breaking and entering," the Policewoman spoke into her Radio. "Send me some backup. I've got them restrained." Eventually, she seemed to have noticed that Romana had woken up. "Oi! You sit...still...the both of you!" she snapped, the last four words confirming that the Doctor had woken up too.

"Cricket bat," groaned the Doctor. "I'm thinking...Cricket bat..."

"...coated in linseed oil," finished Romana.

"You two were breaking and entering," the Policewoman reminded them. "And how could you have known about the linseed oil?" That last bit had been focused at Romana.

"I have weird taste buds," replied Romana. Looking at her closely, the Policewoman resembled Amelia Pond. But before the woman could reply to Romana's strange remark, both were cut short by the Doctor, who had discovered, via a bang to the head, that he was handcuffed to a radiator. It had not escaped the Time Lady's notice that she was in the same position.

"Well, that's _much_ better," the elder Time Lord remarked. "Brand new me. Whack on the head, just what I needed."

"Do you want to shut up now?" the Policewoman snapped. "I've got backup on the way."

"Have you?" remarked Romana, smirking. At this, the other redhead stared at her as if to say; 'Of course. Need you ask?' Only the Time Lady had seen through the getup from the beginning – the Radio was a fake. "I know a real Radio when I see one, Officer. Or should I say..." she continued, her mind rewinding the Temporal image by twelve years. "...Amelia Pond?"

The redhead's stare turned from incredulity to black shock – a look mirrored on the Doctor's face. "How did you know?" she asked.

"Well, to start off...there was the ginger hair," Romana told her, listing the signs off aloud. "Then there was the facial resemblance to Amelia Pond. I can also rewind an image using my Time sense. I rewound your image by twelve years. We're twelve years late, aren't we?"

"Twelve years, and FOUR Psychiatrists!" Amelia shouted. Her face was a mask of pain and fury.

_"__Four?!"_ cried the Doctor incredulously.

Amelia blushed. "I kept biting them," she admitted, forcing herself not to snigger. When Romana's eyes went wide, she added; "They said you weren't real. And for the record, it's Amy now."

"But Amelia Pond was a wonderful name!" Romana protested.

"Bit fairytale," Amy smirked tautly. "Like yours."

"Well if you still live here...Amy," the Time Lady adjusted herself to the new diminutive name (in a way, it was almost a reverse situation to the choosing of _her_ diminutive name – to begin with, the Doctor hadn't wanted to use 'Romanadvoratrelundar,' and eventually she'd got used to 'Romana,' or sometimes 'Fred'), "how many rooms are on this floor?"

Amy blinked in confusion. "Five," she replied, before counting with her finger, "one, two, three, four, five."

"Six," the Doctor spoke finally.

_"__What?"_

"Look."

"Look where?" Amy asked.

"Exactly where you don't want to look. Where you _never_ want to look," the Time Lord answered. "The corner of your eye. Look behind you, Amy."

Amy turned round, finally noticing the sixth door she'd failed to notice for twelve years. "That's..." she whispered in shock. "That is _not_ possible...how's that possible?"

"The door has a Perception Filter all the way around it," Romana told her. "We sensed it the last time we were here...and we should have seen it then. We would have, but for the TARDIS Cloister Bell."

"But that's a _whole room!"_ Amy gasped. "That's a whole room I've never even _noticed!"_

"The Filter stops you noticing," the Doctor told her. "Something came here a while ago to hide. It's still hiding, and you _NEED_ to uncuff us now!"

"I don't have the key. I lost it." Amy proceeded to open the until-now-unnoticed door.

"How could you have lost it?!" exclaimed the Doctor. "Stay away from that door!" But Amy did not comply. "Do not _touch_ that door!" Again, no compliance. "Do _not_ open that-" Once again he was ignored, and Amy headed inside. The Doctor turned to his fiancé. "Why does nobody ever listen to me?! Do I just have a face that nobody ever _listens to?!"_

"His Screwdriver...Amy, where is it?" Romana called in after her. "It's silver, with a blue LED at the end. Where has it gone?"

"Nothing here," Amy called back.

"Amy, whatever has stopped you noticing the room has gone to an awful lot of trouble to make sure you can't find the thing!" Romana shouted in frustration. "It's not going to let its stealth strategy get compromised by a no-longer-working Perception Filter!"

"Now take Romana's advice and GET OUT!" the Doctor shouted. But still, Amy did not emerge from the room.

"Silver, blue at the end?" Amy asked for confirmation.

"My Screwdriver, yeah," the Doctor confirmed.

"It's here."

"Must've rolled under the door," the Doctor mused.

"Yeah...must've. And then it must have jumped up onto the table," Amy called back shakily.

Those were the words that did it. "Amy, get out!" shouted Romana. "AMY! GET OUT OF THAT ROOM!"

"GET OUT OF THERE!" her fellow Time Lord bellowed. Still no emergence from the room. "What is it? What are you doing?"

"There's nothing here...but..."

"Corner of your eye, Amelia," Romana called into the room. "But don't try to see it. If it knows you've seen it, it won't hesitate to kill you. Don't look at it."

"Do. Not. Look!" the Doctor finished for her. But they both knew they were just waiting for the scream. And sure enough, Amy screamed in horror.

"GET OUT OF THERE!" both Time Lords roared. Amy finally complied, rushing out and handing the Sonic Screwdriver over to the Doctor. He promptly pointed it at the door and activated it – this resulted in the door becoming locked.

"Will that hold it?" Amy questioned them in a panic.

"Oh, sure," the Doctor scoffed. "It's an interdimensional Multiform from outer Space – they're all _terrified_ of wood!"

"Doctor," Romana scolded him as Amy glared. "No matter how urgent the situation, there is _no need_ for that kind of attitude!"

Sometime later, the door was eventually thrown back into the Hallway, to reveal a man with a dog chained to a leash. A few moments passed before they heard barking – but it wasn't coming from the dog. Looking closer, Romana could see the man's face contorted into a snarl.

"But that's just-" Amy began, but Romana cut her off.

"No it isn't, Amy," the Time Lady told her. "It's all one creature – disguised as two. Multiforms can do that."

"Heel!" the Doctor commanded, before adding; "We're completely safe...and do you know why?" He gestured to Amy as Romana snatched the Sonic from him and applied it to the handcuffs. _"She_ sent for backup!"

"I didn't send for backup – I'm a Kissogram!" Amy told them, making Romana groan. _Great,_ she thought sarcastically. _We're gone for five minutes, but it's twelve years for Amelia. Next thing we know, the adult Amy's a prostitute!_

"That was a clever lie to save our lives," the Doctor scolded Amy, before turning back to the creature. "OK! No backup, and that's why we're safe, because _if_ we had backup, you'd have to kill us!"

However, this wasn't the case for very long – the growling, rumbling voice from the crack rang throughout the immediate area. "ATTENTION, PRISONER ZERO; THE HUMAN RESIDENCE IS SURROUNDED!" bellowed the Atraxi. "ATTENTION, PRISONER ZERO; THE HUMAN RESIDENCE IS SURROUNDED!"

"OK, forget what I just said," amended the Doctor hastily. "We have backup, and that's definitely why we're safe!"

"Doctor..." Romana began to warn him. Long ago, during her Xenolegislation classes at the Prydon Academy, she had heard about the methods the Atraxi used to lure prisoners out of the hiding places. They didn't always end well for the unknowing hosts of the prisoner's asylum. Seconds later, Romana's thoughts were confirmed.

"PRISONER ZERO WILL VACATE THE HUMAN RESIDENCE, OR THE HUMAN RESIDENCE WILL BE INCINERATED!" the Atraxi stated its ultimatum to Prisoner Zero...


	4. Into Leadworth

Into Leadworth

**"****Well,** safe apart from, y'know...incineration," the Doctor shrugged sheepishly. As Romana struggled to free him from the cuffs so the trio could head downstairs into the Garden – Prisoner Zero having moved for somewhere to hide – all the while, the Atraxi's message could be heard, constantly repeating;

"PRISONER ZERO WILL VACATE THE HUMAN RESIDENCE, OR THE HUMAN RESIDENCE WILL BE INCINERATED!"

*DW* **_the Garden..._** *DW*

**"****So** why choose a Policewoman?" Romana questioned Amy on her choice of costume as they headed for the TARDIS.

"You both broke into my house!" she exclaimed. "It was this or a French Maid!"

"Oh, the joys of France!" the Time Lady cried happily, despite the current situation.

_"__What is going on?!"_ demanded Amy, frustrated with the entire affair.

"An alien Convict is hiding in your spare room disguised as a man and a dog, and some other aliens are about to incinerate your house," the Doctor explained. "Any questions?"

"Yes," said Amy.

"Me too!" When they got to the TARDIS, however, the Doctor found that he couldn't open it. "No! No! No! NO! Don't do that, not now!"

"She's still rebuilding," Romana surmised sadly. She then turned back to Amy. "Anywhere we can go from here, Amy?"

"Into the Village," Amy offered. So they headed off into Leadworth...

*DW*

...only to be confronted with the same Atraxi message as they were in Amy's house. They first heard it coming from an ice cream van, played on a Radio.

"No, no, no, come on!" Amy cried. "What? We're being staked out by an _ice cream van?"_

The group headed over. "Why are you playing that?!" the Doctor demanded of the Vendor.

"It's supposed to be 'Claire De Lune'," the Vendor replied in confusion. Very soon, they found that it wasn't just the ice cream van – it was being played through every communications device in the immediate area. This made Romana wonder just how widespread the message had gone...

*DW* **_in a house..._** *DW*

**An** elderly woman was flicking through the Channels on her TV when the trio burst in. "Hello!" the Doctor announced. "Sorry to burst in – we're doing a special on Television faults in the area."

"As well as crimes," Romana added, gesturing to Amy's Police outfit. "May we have a look?"

"I was just about to phone," the woman explained. "It's on every Channel." Then she turned her attention to Amy. "Hello, Amy dear. Are you a Policewoman now?"

"Well, sometimes," Amy told her with a smile.

"I thought you were a Nurse?" the woman asked her.

"I can...be a Nurse."

"Or actually a Nun?"

"I dabble," Amy explained. This garnered an eye-roll from Romana, who new exactly what a Kissogram did, having spent 37 years inside a Fob Watch on Earth.

The elderly woman decided to change the topic. "Amy...who're your friends?"

But before any introductions could be made, a question escaped the Doctor's mouth. "What sort of job's a Kissogram?"

"A Kissogram, Doctor, is someone who goes to parties and kisses people in outfits," Romana told him. _Among_ _other things,_ she telepathically added.

"It's a laugh," Amy defended.

"You were a _little girl_ five minutes ago!" the Doctor cried.

"You're worse than my aunt!" Amy scoffed.

"I'm the Doctor – I'm worse than everybody's aunt!" he retorted. "And that is not how I'm introducing myself," he added, turning to the elderly woman.

"Don't even think about making the 'Oh, my giddy aunt!' comment, either," Romana scolded him, remembering their anomalous encounter with his 2nd incarnation when they'd first travelled together.

They then heard the same Atraxi message being played on the Radio, this time in several languages as the Doctor kept changing the Languages setting.

"OK, so it's everywhere, in every language," the Time Lord surmised. "They're broadcasting to the whole world."

"I thought they might be," Romana offered, as a young man entered the room. "But to incinerate a planet this size with magnetic poles and an average molten core, they would need a 40% fission blast. This, for a medium-sized Starship, means twenty minutes to power up – maybe more if our lack of procrastination at Amy's house bought us more Time."

"How much more would you say?" the Doctor asked.

"An extra five at most," the Time Lady sighed in defeat. "So twenty-five – not a lot of comfort."

The young man was transfixed at what he had seen, his gaze focused on the elder Time Lord. "Are you the Doctor?" he asked incredulously.

"He _is,_ isn't he?!" cried the elderly woman. "He's the Doctor! The Raggedy Doctor! With the Regal Romana!" This comment made Romana's head turn. The woman carried on. "All those cartoons you did when you were little! The Raggedy Doctor and the Regal Romana! It's them!"

"Shut up," Amy muttered in a sotto voice.

"Cartoons?" the Doctor said questioningly.

"Gran, it's them, isn't it? It's really them!" the young man exclaimed.

"Jeff, shut up!" Amy snapped. Frustration was beginning to take its toll. "Twenty-five minutes to _what?!"_

"When those aliens said 'Human residence,' they weren't just talking about your house," Romana told her grimly. "Amy, they meant the entire Earth. If Prisoner Zero does not surrender him-or-herself in the allotted Time, the Atraxi Starship will burn this planet in a fireball." Her mind went back to the story of the Ravalox Scandal...

*DW* **_many years ago..._** *DW*

**"****You** appear to be determined to avoid the Time Lords at all costs, Doctor," Romana II observed curiously. In her Time with the 8th Doctor, she had the sneaking suspicion that there was more to his story than simply wanting to create a life with her and their son away from Gallifrey. "And it's not just about me, is it?"

"How did you guess?" the 8th Doctor asked her, half of his attention on her, the other on the TARDIS Console.

But she merely said; "I _know_ you, Doctor. I know there's more to this life than keeping me away from the stuffy and indolent society that _is_ Gallifrey."

Eight sighed. "It's not just that they're stuffy and indolent, Romana," he told her grimly. "It's that the whole Time Lord hierarchy is rotten to the very core."

Romana II stared in shock. "What makes you say that?" she asked, dreadful trepidation in her voice. She wasn't sure she wanted to hear the story now, but lost words couldn't be recalled.

"What do you know...about Ravalox?" Eight asked her.

Romana II was confused. "Ravalox?" she inquired. Eight nodded. "Not much. Next to nothing."

"I'm not surprised," Eight commented bitterly. "Before my second trial, very few people did."

_"__Second_ trial?!" cried Romana II.

Eight nodded. "And it was even more of a farce than the first." Now she was utterly confused. "I visited the planet out of scientific curiosity...but for some reason, the High Council decided that this was reason enough to put me on trial. What had my curiosity piqued was the fact that Ravalox shared a lion's share of planetary attributes with Earth. Too many, as I found out – Earth in the year 2 Million was moved across Space with a Magnetron and incinerated."

Romana just stared, slack-jawed in horror that her race had seen fit to commit such an atrocity. "But why would they do such a thing? Earth is the situation for far too many fixed points in Time!"

"To cover the tracks made by the development of a few miserable, filthy scientific advances," Eight deadpanned. "And the fixed points weren't so much as changed as utterly obliterated. Omega only knows what nasty anomalies that caused." He stopped. "I wouldn't want you to be living amongst such people. That's the main reason I wouldn't want you going back to Gallifrey..." She felt him think back to that second trial...and how outraged he'd been in his 6th incarnation when shown the truth by the Master...

_"__In all my travellings throughout the Universe, I have battled against evil...against __**power-mad conspirators!**__ I should have stayed __**here!**__ The oldest civilisation – decadent, degenerate, and __**rotten to the core! Ha!**__ Power-mad conspirators? Daleks, Sontarans, __**Cybermen?!**__ They're still in the Nursery compared to us! Ten million years of absolute power – __**that's**__ what it takes to be __**really corrupt!"**_

*DW* **_back to present Time...Leadworth streets..._** *DW*

**"****What** is this place?" asked the Doctor. "Where are we?"

"Leadworth," Amy supplied for him.

"Where's the rest of it?" he continued.

"This _is_ it."

"So we don't have an Airport or a Nuclear Power Station," Romana began to list off what they didn't have. "And the nearest city is..." She turned to Amy for help.

"Gloucester," she answered.

"Gloucester...which would take some Time to get to," the Time Lady predicted. "More Time than we have, let alone allocate to forming a plan to stop all of this. All we have, basically...is a Post Office...which is _shut."_

_"__What_ is _that?"_ the Doctor demanded, pointing at – and running up to a – small body of stone-contained water. The group followed him.

"It's a duck pond," Amy told him, confused at his behaviour.

"Why aren't there any ducks?"

"I don't know. There's never any ducks."

"Then how do you know whether it's a duck pond or not?" Romana questioned her. There was no point in calling it a duck pond if ducks never went there.

"It just _is,"_ Amy insisted, clearly not able to give a reason. "Is it important, the duck pond?"

Before the Doctor could reply, he clutched his chest in pain.

_Are you alright, Theta?_ Romana asked him telepathically.

_I'll be fine,_ he waved her off. _I just haven't settled yet. It could have been worse – it could have been a neuron implosion._ The comment made Romana grimace – neuron implosions were a very nasty post-regenerative experience for Time Lords.

But before anyone could say any more, either verbally or telepathically, the immediate area went darker than before. Every member of the trio looked up into the sky – and saw the Sun's appearance changing.

"What's happening? Why is it going dark?" Amy demanded.

"The Atraxi have sealed off the upper atmosphere of the Earth with an impenetrable Forcefield," Romana explained. "It's altering the wave frequency of the Sun's radiation. That," she pointed at the Sun, "is how Earth's Sun actually looks."

"Oh, and here they come!" the Doctor cried. "The Human Race – the End comes, as it was always going to...down a video phone."

"This isn't real, is it?" Amy asked, voice laced with denial and dread. "This is some great big wind-up?"

"I wish we could say it was, Amy," Romana told her sadly, half of her attention on a young man who did not have his phone poised at the Sun, but at a man with a dog. "But we would be lying if we did – this is quite real."

"You told me the both of you had a Time Machine!" the Kissogram reminded them.

"And you believed us!" the Doctor shot back.

"Then I grew up!"

"Oh, you never wanna do that," the Time Lord told her, then paused. "No, hang on. Shut up!" He whacked himself on the forehead. "Wait, I missed it! I saw it and I missed it! What did I see?"

"You saw a Nurse taking a photograph of a man and a dog, didn't you?" his fellow Time Lady asked, her eyebrow rising in a manner reminiscent of her 1st incarnation. He nodded, so she turned back to Amy. "Amy, please," she pleaded. "I'm sorry we arrived late...but we've got to root out Prisoner Zero, and for that, we need all the help we can get." Before Amy could reply, Romana snatched the apple the young Amelia Pond had given to the Doctor out of his pocket and gave it to her. "It's as fresh as the night you gave it to the both of us...and you know that it's the same apple."

Amy stared at it for a moment before refocusing her attention on the Time Lady. She locked eyes with her...and she could see both the gravity of the situation and the plea to be forgiven. Amy turned to the Doctor and saw the same plea in his eyes. "What do we do?" she asked them.

"We stop the Nurse!" they both replied. With that, they bounded off towards the Nurse who was taking photographs of the man and the dog. Once they got there, the Doctor snatched the phone off of him.

"The Sun's going out...and _you're_ photographing a man and a dog. Why?" he asked the Nurse. But before the Nurse could answer the question, he noticed Amy.

"Amy!"

"Hi!" she greeted. She then began the introductions. "This is Rory – he's a friend."

"Boyfriend," the now-introduced Rory corrected.

_"__Kind-of_-boyfriend," Amy told them, which made Rory mutter; "Amy!"

_"__Kind-of-boyfriend?"_ Romana asked her, staring incredulously. But before she or the Doctor could say any more, Rory cut them off in shock.

"Oh...my God!" he spluttered, clearly not believing the sight before him. "It's _them!"_

"Just answer the question, please!" Amy told him.

"It's them, though! The Raggedy Doctor and the Regal Romana!" Rory babbled.

"Yeah, they came back."

"But they were a story – they were a game!" he continued to babble. By this point, the Doctor lost his patience and grabbed him.

"Man and dog – _why?"_ he demanded.

"Sorry – because – he can't be there, because he's-"

"In a Hospital, in a coma," the Doctor finished the sentence with him. Rory nodded.

"Clever Nurse," Romana commented, smiling. Most Humans would require a bit of guidance before they did something that intelligent, but Rory had more or less done it without so much as a word of prompting – a companion standing right there.

"Really?" the Nurse asked.

The Time Lady nodded. "A Multiform needs a live feed to disguise itself – a link with a living (but dormant) mind." Before she could clarify, she heard the man bark in a dog's voice – Prisoner Zero was running amok in Leadworth...

* * *

**A/N; First off, I'd like to say to my viewers - sorry I've been idle for so long, but I was struggling to think of ideas on how to update the fic. Especially with my coursework taking its toll. But now I'm back - and the fun can begin anew.**


	5. Confronting Prisoner Zero

**A/N: Hello again. There are two things I like to make you aware of.**

**Firstly, there is going to be a change in one of the genres of this entry, partly due to the fact that having just got out of the Time War, Romana still needs to heal from the emotional trauma. Therefore, the secondary genre is going to change from 'Adventure' to 'Hurt/Comfort.' So, if you found this story via the genre filters, I apologise for the confusion.**

**Secondly, I have a question - can anyone suggest an actress candidate for this incarnation of Romana? Let me know via PM or review, but there are a couple of criteria;**

**She has to be a ginger, as THIS Romana has ginger hair.**

**She CANNOT be Karen Gillan, as that would mean looking like Amy Pond.**

**You will be informed of the decision in the next update, once I have a few ideas for Romana's likeness.**

* * *

Confronting Prisoner Zero

**The** Doctor stepped towards the barking Multiform. "Prisoner Zero," he greeted the Convict.

"What? There's a Prisoner Zero too?" Rory asked Romana, who nodded. But her attention was now focused on an Atraxi Starship overhead. _Doctor,_ she called through telepathy. _Use the Sonic!_

_I'm just about to,_ he replied, before switching back to verbal communication. "See, that ship up there," he gestured to the Atraxi, "is scanning this area for non-Terrestrial Technology. And _nothing_...say 'non-Terrestrial'...like a Sonic...Screwdriver!" He pointed his Sonic into the air and activated it.

The result was pandemonium – streetlights exploded, car alarms were set off, and other modes of transportation went haywire. Even a Firetruck was out of control. The Doctor grinned at Prisoner Zero.

"I think someone's gonna notice, don't you?!" he called. And indeed, the Atraxi were starting to catch on to the debacle. But then...disaster – the Sonic Screwdriver exploded, singeing the Doctor's hand as he dropped it onto the ground. "No, NO!" the Time Lord shouted in frustration. "NO, DON'T DO THAT!"

"Look! It's going!" Rory called. He wasn't wrong – when the quartet looked up, the Atraxi was leaving.

"NO, COME BACK!" yelled the Doctor. "HE'S HERE! COME BACK! HE'S _HERE!_ PRISONER ZERO IS _HERE!_ COME BACK, HE'S HERE! PRISONER ZERO IS-"

"Doctor, stop yelling!" Romana called over to him. "He's not here anymore!" Indeed, when they turned to where Zero had been, the Multiform was no longer there.

"Doctor? Romana? What do we do?" Amy asked the pair of Time Lords, who were now close enough to speak without raising their voices.

"Zero is hiding in Human form," Romana told her and Rory, "so _we_ need to force it to show itself – it's already proven that it isn't going to give itself up." This scenario was turning into a less immediate version of the hunt for _The Worshipful and Ancient Law of Gallifrey,_ which their old enemy Skagra had sought after and for which the Time Lords would have torched the planet for just to stop it from falling into his hands. The Time Lady lowered her voice to speak to the Doctor. "Got any ideas?"

*DW*

**"****So** that _thing_..._that_ lived in my house for _twelve years?"_ Amy asked in revulsion.

"Multiforms can live for _millennia_ – twelve years is a pit-stop," the Doctor informed her.

"So how come _you two_ show up again on the same day _that lot_ do, the same minute?"

"The Atraxi are looking for Zero, but they followed us because they got a fix on us through the crack in your bedroom wall," replied Romana. "If you're following someone, the only place they can lead you is where – and _when_ – they go."

"What're they on about?" Rory cut in nervously.

"Rory, can we borrow your phone, please?" the Time Lady asked of the Nurse. But he carried on rambling, disbelief still ensnaring him.

"How can they be real? They were never real!"

"Rory, we're quite real! Phone, please!" she commanded. It was spoken with such authority that Rory handed the phone over. Moments later, she regretted the way she had said it – it reminded her of too many instances during her Presidency on Gallifrey.

"They were just a game – we were kids!" Rory reminded Amy. "We dressed up as them!"

"Did you?!" Romana questioned, now genuinely flattered – imitation _was_ the highest form of flattery. Both Humans nodded, blushes creeping onto their faces. Before the Time Lady could comment further, the Doctor cut them all off.

"These photos," the Time Lord asked Rory, commenting on the photos of people in the streets of Leadworth; "They're all coma patients?"

"Yeah," replied the Nurse.

"No, they're all the Multiform," the Doctor corrected him. "Eight comas, eight disguises for Prisoner Zero."

"He had a dog, though," Amy reminded them. "There's a dog in a coma?"

"The coma patient is likely dreaming that he's walking his dog, so Zero got a dog," Romana explained to her. "Who was that friend of yours, Amy, the Pretty-Boy?"

"Thanks," Rory muttered sarcastically.

"Who, I might add, has not done anything useful to help us so far – unlike Rory here," the Time Lady finished. Rory had the good grace to smile sheepishly.

"You mean Jeff?" Amy asked.

"He had a laptop in his bag, a laptop. Big bag, big laptop!" the Doctor exclaimed. "We need Jeff's laptop! You two, get to the Hospital! Get everyone out of that ward! Clear the whole floor – phone us when you're done!"

With that, the two Time Lords bolted back down to Jeff's house...

*DW* **_Jeff's house..._** *DW*

**"****Hello!"** the Doctor greeted Jeff as he burst into his room. "Laptop – give us!"

Jeff protested and tried to pull it away from his grasp, but one glare from Romana was enough to make him cower and hand it to them. With their first glance at the screen, they were revolted.

"Good grief!" Romana exclaimed. What she said next _was_ an exaggeration, but she couldn't help it. "Is this what you Humans _do_ with your spare Time?!" She closed the conspicuous window on the computer and the Time Lords set to work.

*DW*

**Setting** up to hack in on a secure call was hardly a problem. Though the participants had been prepared to switch them off, the Doctor had given them a whole host of scientific facts that had them hooked...though he _had_ slipped in a joke. For a brief amount of Time, Romana had considered shying back to avoid being mistaken for her Chameleon Arch-created Human persona, Frederica Shepherd, who had been a Professor noted for her studies into the nature of Time – but then remembered that Fred had looked older than her in the last few moments of her life.

"Sir, ma'am, what are you doing?" asked the NASA scientist.

"We're writing a Computer Virus," the Doctor told them. "Very clever, super-fast, and a tiny bit alive, but don't. Let. On." He then proceeded to give instructions to the Chatroom on what to do with the virus.

"Who's your lady friend?" Patrick Moore asked wryly.

"Patrick, behave!" the Doctor scolded him, knowing that he was talking about Romana, who just rolled her eyes at the antics of both the Doctor and the Humans on the screen.

"What does this Virus _do?"_ another expert asked them suspiciously – they were writing a Computer Virus, after all.

"This Virus is a reset command, designed to infiltrate the Wi-Fi Systems around the globe," Romana explained it to them. "Anything with a Numerical Counter and a Computer Chip will default at zero at the exact same moment."

"But yeah, we could be lying," admitted the Doctor. "Why should you trust us?" He paused. "We'll let our best man explain." Another long pause followed. The Time Lord added in a sotto voice; "Jeff...you're our best man."

"You _what?"_ he whispered in shock.

The Doctor snapped the Laptop half-shut to reply. "Listen to me. In ten minutes, you're going be a legend. In ten minutes, everyone on that screen is going to be offering you any job you want...but first, you have to be _magnificent._ You have to make them trust you and get them working. This is it, Jeff. Right here, right now. This is when you fly – today's the day _you_ save the world."

"Though it _may_ help to delete your Internet History first," Romana added helpfully.

"Why me?" Jeff asked the pair of Time Lords.

"It's _your_ bedroom," the Doctor told him with a shrug. "Now go, go, go!" With that, he and Romana sped off to commandeer a vehicle to reach the Hospital...

*DW*

**Eventually,** the pair acquired a Firetruck, and were on their way to the Hospital. Soon they received a call from Amy, the Doctor answering the phone. A few minutes into the call, they found that she and Rory were becoming pinned inside the Coma Ward by Prisoner Zero. After that, the Kissogram told the Time Lords the appropriate window to drive the ladder on the Firetruck through – First Floor, on the left, fourth window from the end. Sure enough, they got to their destination in Time.

"Right! Hello," announced the Doctor to the occupants of the room. "Are we late?" He glanced at the clock – they still had enough Time before the Virus worked its magic on the Wi-Fi. "No, three minutes to go – there's still Time!"

"Time for what, _Time Lords?"_ scoffed a woman accompanied by two children – this was, without a doubt, Prisoner Zero.

"Take the disguise off," the Doctor told Zero. "They'll find you in a heartbeat – nobody dies."

"Doctor, the Atraxi are going to _kill_ Zero this time," Romana told him with a sigh. "It seems to be a classic case of; 'if I am to die, let there be fire.' Am I right?" The question was aimed at Zero.

"Quite," the Convict replied with an evil, manic grin.

"OK – you came to this world by opening a crack in Space and Time," the Doctor tried. "Do it again. Just leave."

_"__I_ did not open the crack," Zero denied.

"Somebody..._did."_

"The cracks in the skin of the Universe – don't you know where they came from?" Zero asked them. Their silence was confirmation enough. "You _don't,_ do you?" Zero's voice changed from the woman's to that of a child's. "The Doctor in the TARDIS doesn't know. Does-n't kno-ow, does-n't kno-ow!" And the voice changed back. "The Universe is cracked. The Pandorica will open. Silence will fall."

The last two sentences were ones that stirred the interest in Romana. But before she could think on it, the clock let out a crack – that was the cue.

"Time's up, Zero," Romana commented. "But maybe that was why you were called Zero, no?" Zero just looked unimpressed at the quip. "Take a look at the clock." The Convict did so – and noticed, as did everyone else in the Ward, that it had defaulted at 0:00.

"Yeah, I know, just a clock, whatever," the Doctor began. "But do you know what's happening right now?" Zero turned back to the Time Lords. "In one little bedroom, our team are working – Jeff, and the world."

"And they're spreading a word, with a Quantum fast – a word which is now out," Romana continued. "And the word...is 'Zero.' The Atraxi likely have an entire fleet of Starships monitoring all communications around the Earth – they will probably take the word as a hint, given who they're after. So they'll be able to track a Computer Virus to its source in less than a minute..."

"Which, by the way...is right here," the Doctor finished. Right on cue, there was a bright light outside. "Oh, and I think they just found us!"

Zero was derisive. "The Atraxi are limited," the creature scoffed. "While I'm in this form, they'll still be unable to detect me. They've tracked a _phone,_ not _me."_

"You _still_ aren't getting this, are you?" Romana sighed, rolling her eyes at the Multiform's idiocy. "You see...the Good Nurse, over here," the Time Lady indicated Rory, who stared at her, "decided it would be a good idea to photograph what _he_ thought...were eight coma patients, wandering the streets of Leadworth. Of course, he was really taking pictures of _you_ – all with his phone...which the Doctor is now holding in his hands, Zero."

"Ooo...and being uploaded now," the Doctor finished with her, using the phone to do just that. "And the final score is...no TARDIS, no Screwdriver, seven minutes to spare." He raised his arms into the air and shouted; "WHO DA MAN?!"

Most of the Ward's occupants just stared, unimpressed, but Romana rolled her eyes and shook her head slightly.

"Fine," the Time Lord gave in. "I'm _never_ saying that again."

"Then I shall take a new form," Zero shrugged. These words ignited Romana's panic and caused her to smack her head. But the Doctor failed to notice this.

"Oh stop it, you know you can't-" he began, only for his fiancé to cut him off.

"Doctor," she stopped him, fear prominent in her voice. "A Multiform only needs _months_ to form a psychic link..."

"And _I've_ had _years,"_ finished Zero, the face of the woman now etched into a malevolent sneer. The entire Multiform's disguise glowed a sinister orange-red, and both Time Lords heard someone collapse to the floor. As they turned around, Romana's fears were confirmed in the form of Amy lying on the floor in a deep coma.

"No! Amy?!" the Doctor shouted. "You've got to hold on! Amy, don't sleep! You got to stay awake, please!"

"Doctor?" Rory redirected his attention to Prisoner Zero, who had now assumed the form a floppy-haired man in his mid-twenties, garnered in torn, raggedy clothes. The pair of Time Lords looked at the Convict's new disguise.

"Well _that's_ rubbish," the elder Time Lord snorted. "Who's _that_ supposed to be?"

"That's _you,_ Doctor," Romana scolded him. "So I wouldn't call that rubbish. _I_ actually quite like it." When she turned back to face the creature however, she found that she had appeared as well.

"Really?!" the Doctor's face lit up slightly, despite the gravity of the situation. His fiancé nodded, but before she could elaborate, he walked up to Prisoner Zero. "Why me, though? You're linked with _her_ – why are you copying _me?"_

"I'm not," Zero replied, but it wasn't in the Doctor's voice – the voice was younger, female, and had a Scottish accent to it...the voice of the young Amelia Pond, whose form appeared from behind the facsimiles of the Doctor and Romana. "Poor Amy Pond – still such a child inside...dreaming of the imaginary friends she knows will return to save her. What a disappointment you've both been," the Multiform mocked them.

At this, Romana walked up to the creature...and stared at it hard in the eye, boiling with rage at the slight against them all. "And _that_ was your final mistake," the Time Lady snarled, before rushing back to Amy. "Amy, don't just hear us, listen! You went inside that room – a room that you couldn't see for twelve years – when we told you not to, because you were curious." She paused only for a moment. "Remember what you found in there." The result happened only moments later.

"No! No! No!" Zero shouted in Amelia's voice, as the entire Multiform began to glow orange-red again. When Romana walked back up to the creature, it had assumed its true form.

"Game Over, Zero," the Time Lady taunted the now helpless Convict. "You lose." And sure enough, the Atraxi located the alien with their Spotlights.

"PRISONER ZERO IS LOCATED!" announced the Atraxi, as Zero writhed and shrieked in agony. "PRISONER ZERO IS RESTRAINED!" Now, the Atraxi could deal with the creature without destroying the entire Earth...but not before Prisoner Zero delivered one final message;

"Silence, Time Lords," hissed the Multiform. "Silence will fall!" With that, Prisoner Zero faded away, its presence no longer a threat to Earth's continued existence...


	6. The Adventure Begins

The Adventure Begins...

**"****The** Sun...it's back to normal, right?" Rory asked the pair of Time Lords. "That's...that's good, yeah? That means it's over." Before he could say more, Amy began to stir. "Amy? Are you OK? Are you with us?"

She nodded. "What happened?"

"They did it. The Doctor and Romana did it," he told her.

"No, we didn't," the Doctor called over to the pair, simultaneously fiddling with Rory's phone.

"What's he doing?" the Nurse questioned Romana.

"Tracking the signal back," the Time Lady replied by way of explanation. "I apologise for this."

Now Rory was confused. They'd just saved the world, hadn't they? "For what?"

"The bill that you'll receive for what the Doctor did with the phone," Romana added for his benefit.

Eventually, the other Time Lord stopped fiddling with the phone and _shouted_ into it. "OI! I didn't say you could _go!"_ It was evident that he was talking to the Atraxi. "Article 57 of the Shadow Proclamation – this is a _fully-established Level 5 planet!_ And you were going to _burn_ it – _what?_ Did you think no-one was watching?! You lot – back here – _now!"_ He threw the phone to Rory. "OK, _now_ I've done it!" He then set off for the roof, Romana and Amy in tow.

"Did he just bring them back?" Rory sputtered, utterly bewildered by the Doctor's course of action. "Did he just save the world from aliens and then bring all the aliens back again?!" He ran after the trio into the corridor.

"Where are we going?" Amy called after the pair of Time Lords.

"The Roof," the Doctor called back, before taking a detour. "No, hang on!" He headed into a Changing Room.

"What's in there?"

"I'm saving the world – I need a decent shirt," he explained, making Romana roll her eyes at his antics – no doubt this would be when he would form his questionable fashion sense. "To _hell_ with the Raggedy – time to put on a show!" He then began removing the tattered outfit of his previous incarnation and ruffled through the clothes in the lockers.

"You just summoned aliens back to Earth," Rory reminded him. "Actual aliens, deadly aliens...aliens...of death, and now you're taking your clothes off!" He turned to Amy. "Amy, he's taking his clothes off!"

"Turn your back if it embarrasses you," the Doctor told him.

"Are you stealing clothes, now?!" Rory questioned him. "Those clothes belong to people, you know!"

"He once stole a Time Machine, Rory," Romana told him with a smirk. "Stealing clothes in _nothing_ compared to _that."_

He blinked, and turned away. Noticing the ladies had not done the same, he whispered; "Are you two not gonna turn your back?"

Amy was about to answer 'no,' but one pointed stare from Romana made her nod. She therefore turned her back out of respect for the wishes of a woman she had admired greatly when she had been a child.

Rory noticed that the Time Lady had not turned _her_ back. "Romana?"

She grinned cheekily. "Why should I? He's _my_ fiancé, after all," she replied, before adding a telepathic message to the Doctor; _Remind me to give you a good shagging later._

_Romana!_ He cried back in shock, blushing deep maroon. _When did you get so __**naughty?**_

_When you became so __**hot,**_ Romana shot back teasingly – but this was only a half-truth. Sure, this incarnation _did_ have a cheeky, flirtatious nature, but it helped conceal a lot of built-up pain; the death of her son (who had also been the Doctor's), the trauma from twenty years of imprisonment at the hands of the Daleks, the arduous years of her Presidency (for much of which she didn't have the Doctor to guide her), and the torture she'd endured when she was a political prisoner on Gallifrey...

_No! I can't think about any of that!_ She snapped to herself. _I have to move on..._

*DW* **_later...on the Roof..._** *DW*

**"****So** this was a good idea, yeah?" Amy questioned the Time Lords as they prepared to confront the Atraxi, the Leader of whom now had its giant eyeball fixed on them from the Starship's Control Pod. "They were _leaving!"_

"Leaving's good – never coming back is even better," replied the Doctor, who had chosen a pale red shirt, navy blue trousers, a pair of braces and a pair of black boots, while Romana held the tweed jacket, waiting for him to choose his neckwear. He then turning his attention to the Atraxi Leader and bellowing; "COME _ONNNNNN,_ THEN! THE DOCTOR WILL SEE YOU NOW!"

The Atraxi removed itself from its Ship to face him, scanning him as it went. Eventually, it spoke; "YOU...ARE NOT OF THIS WORLD."

"No," the Doctor conceded. "But I've put a lot of work into it." He began examining the selection of ties, holding one up. "What do you think?" he asked, as though hoping to get an answer from the alien – no such answer came, as Romana knew it wouldn't.

"IS THIS WORLD IMPORTANT?" the Atraxi got straight to the issue at hand.

"Important?!" the Doctor bit out snappily, beginning to throw neck ties back, incensed at their nerve to try and incinerate the planet. "What's that mean, important?! Six BILLION people live here, it THAT important?!"

"The better question would be; 'is this world a threat to the Atraxi?'" Romana cut into the conversation for the first time, catching each tie her fiancé threw back.

The Atraxi turned to her and scanned her. "YOU, ALSO, ARE NOT OF THIS WORLD," it noted.

"No, I am not," the Time Lady nodded. "Now answer the question – is this world a threat?"

The Atraxi activated a series of holographic images displaying the History of Planet Earth. The reply was thusly; "NO."

Now it was the Doctor's turn; "Are the peoples of this world guilty of any crime by the laws of the Atraxi?" he demanded.

More holographic images were shown...and the same conclusion was reached; "NO."

"OK, one more – just one. Is this world protected?" he finally asked the Atraxi Leader, who begin using the display to run the visual records of aliens who had tried to invade or destroy the Earth. "Because you're not the first lot to come here..."

"Indeed. Many have tried – ultimately, none have succeeded," Romana added. "The reason – you're looking right at him." With that sentence, the Display began to show all the known visual records of the Doctor's previous incarnations...from the Grandfather to the Lonely God.

While all this had been happening, she noticed that the Doctor had finally settled on a burgundy bow tie, prompting her to toss him the tweed jacket. After he donned the jacket, he walked through the image of his past self to stare the Atraxi in the eye. "Hello – I'm the Doctor," he told them. "Basically...run!"

The alien took the hint, reinserting itself into its Starship and flying away to call the Fleet away from the Earth. Both Time Lords marvelled at work well done...when the sound of the TARDIS materialising rang out, prompting the Doctor to take the Key out of his pocket – the Key was glowing, with meant the TARDIS was ready to begin again.

_Come along, Romana,_ the Doctor called out telepathically, a smile on his face. _I think_ _the TARDIS has a surprise for both of us._ With that, both Time Lords dashed off back to Amy's garden...

*DW*

**Upon** opening the TARDIS door, they found a new Desktop Theme waiting for them – one which was a refreshing break from the Coral...looking back, it _had_ looked a bit depressing. The new Theme was cleaner, and highlighted in a brighter hue of orange, the Console more hexagonal, angles more clearly defined, while the Time Rotor seem suspended in mid-air rather than being supported by the sides of the Column..

"Look at you. Oh, you sexy thing, look at you!" the Doctor whispered reverently.

"She's beautiful," Romana acknowledged. "And it goes well with the new you, Doctor."

The elder Time Lord grinned, heading over the Console for a Flight Check. The Time Lady couldn't help but smile – the TARDIS, even when she had been one among thousands, had been the best ship in the Universe.

_Why thank you, Fiancé of my Thief,_ came a telepathic reply from the TARDIS. _And I have a surprise for you, if you feel up to humouring him..._

_What do you mean, Old Girl?_ Romana asked the Timeship.

_Look on the Coat Rack,_ came the reply. So she did...and found a blue velvet ladies frock coat with a matching velvet bow tie hanging out of one of the pockets. Romana walked over to put it on, and found that it was exactly the right size. She then moved to tie the bow tie around the collar of her dark moss green blouse, succeeding in less than a minute as the TARDIS dematerialised. _I lost the golden brown blazer when I was rebuilding, so the least I could do was make a suitable replacement for my favourite Stray,_ the TARDIS told her. _The bow tie is to humour my Thief..._

Romana thanked the TARDIS for the surprise present, and turned to the Doctor for his opinion. "How's this, Doctor?"

When he lifted his head away to look, he was gobsmacked. "Perfect," he replied, grinning madly. "The bow tie makes you look cool...and hot." This comment made Romana blush. "Shall we give her a Flight Check, then?"

"Oh yes, let's..." she trailed off, before a thought occurred to her. "Doctor...when we go back, do you think we should get Amy to invite Rory along as well?"

The elder Time Lord paused for a moment before replying. "Any particular reason you'd like to?"

"Well," Romana replied carefully, "I noticed that while everyone else in Leadworth was busy watching the Sun go dark, Rory was taking photographs of Prisoner Zero. True, he _was_ doing it unknowingly...but there and then was an example of a Human who doesn't overlook the smaller – and less noticeable – details." She finished her explanation. "So what do you think?"

The Doctor smiled. "I'm glad you brought that up," he told her. "I might have overlooked it on my own." His fiancé rolled her eyes in a fond fashion. "Alright then..."

*DW*

**When** the TARDIS materialised once again in Amy's backyard, it was very nearly dark, the Sun having almost gone down. When the Doctor and Romana opened the door, they found that both Amy _and_ Rory were standing in the Garden, both Humans looking gobsmacked.

"Sorry about running off earlier," the Doctor apologised to them. "Brand new TARDIS – bit exciting. Just had a quick hop to the Moon and back to run her in. She's ready for big stuff now!"

Amy was the one to speak first...after a long pause, that was. "You two came back?"

"Course I came back," the Time Lord replied. "I always come back – something wrong with that?"

Romana, however, had caught on to the implications behind Amy's response – once again, they had come back later than planned.

"And he kept the clothes, by the look of it," Rory added, finally adding his two pence.

"Well, I just saved the world," the Doctor reminded him, "the whole planet, for about the millionth time, no charge. Yeah, shoot me – I kept the clothes."

"Including the bow tie," Amy noted. "And it looks like Romana got herself one too, as well as a fancy coat," she added – it wasn't exactly possible to not notice Romana's blue velvet frock coat.

"Yeah, it's cool," the Time Lord proclaimed. "Bow ties are cool."

"Even more so when you have a fancy jacket or coat to go with it," Romana added for him – to which he smiled.

"Y-you're from another planet, yeah?" Rory asked the pair of Time Lords with a stutter.

"Naturally," the Time Lady replied.

"Um...right," the Nurse replied, evidently perplexed by the nature of the conversation taking place.

"So what do you two think?" the Doctor cut in.

"Of what?" Amy questioned them.

"Other planets," he added for clarification. "Want to check some out?"

"You want us to come with you?" Rory chipped in.

"Why not?" Romana replied. "I thought the both of you were rather good at helping us save the world." She then noticed a ring on Amy's finger. "Are you two getting married, by the way?"

Amy smiled. "You noticed?"

"Of course," the Time Lady answered with a smirk. "I'm not as oblivious as _he_ is," she added with a gesture to the Doctor, who frowned in a mock-stern manner. "And we're sorry for arriving late..._again."_

Rory's eyes widened. "How did you know you were two years late?" he asked them.

But it was Amy who answered. "She...has this...ability to rewind an image by a number of years," she told him uncertainly, waiting for correction from Romana. None came – though it was a simplified explanation for Human ears, it was probably the best way for them to understand a Time Lord's Temporal sense.

"The Doctor has it as well...even though it didn't seem up to the job in _our_ last few hours," Romana informed them.

"Yes, yes, if you're quite finished picking on me," the elder Time Lord cut in at the slight against his abilities. "So...are you two coming?"

"Where would we go?" Rory asked them.

"Anywhere, anywhen," Romana supplied helpfully. "Well?"

Both Amy and Rory huddled together and whispered, evidently deciding on whether to accept the offer to travel with the pair of Time Lords. _Fourteen years since Fish Custard,_ the Doctor mused. _Amy Pond, the Girl Who Waited...she's waited long enough..._

Eventually, the pair of Humans came back over to them to give their answer. "Yes," they replied simultaneously.

"Right then," the Doctor announced, clicking his fingers. As if on cue, the TARDIS doors opened once again. "In we go..."

*DW* **_inside the TARDIS..._** *DW*

**When** Amy and Rory first entered the TARDIS, they could only stare...and marvel at the magnificence.

"Well? Anything to say? Any passing remarks?" the Doctor inquired in an expectant tone. "I've heard them all."

"It's another dimension," Rory mused. Both Time Lords turned their heads – the Doctor out of shock, Romana out of amusement that someone had broken with the bigger-on-the-inside tradition. "After what happened with Prisoner Zero, I've been reading up on all the latest Scientific Theories – FTL Travel, Parallel Universes."

The Doctor paused before replying. "I like it better when someone says it's bigger on the inside."

"You would," Romana smiled wryly. "You like to have someone to show off to." Before her fiancé could retort, she stopped him with a kiss before clarifying. "I'm your fiancé, Doctor – it's my job to wind you up."

Then she remembered that the Necklace of Union – the Gallifreyan equivalent of the Earth Wedding Ring – that the 8th Doctor had given her 2nd incarnation was in her handbag. _Evidently, the Doctor isn't the only one who's forgetful,_ she mused, extracting it from the bag and placing it around her neck. Watching this, the Doctor smiled as the TARDIS Console gave him a new Sonic Screwdriver. Looking at the chunkiness of the new Sonic, Romana raised her eyebrows.

"Compensating?" she asked him with a smirk.

"For what?" he replied in confusion.

"Regeneration – it's a lottery you've hardly ever won," Romana supplied, chuckling at his generous amount of chin, secretly thinking that it suited him.

The Doctor just shot her a humorous glare before tossing her a thinner one the TARDIS had made for her. It looked very much like the Doctor's previous Sonic – the only difference being the LED, which was more of a deep magenta.

Both of them noticed their new companions still adjusting to everything they were confronted with. "You two alright?" the elder Time Lord called over to them.

"We're fine," Amy replied for the both of them, gasping in a mixture of wonder and shock. "It's just...there's a whole world in here...just like you said; it's all true. I thought...well, I started to think that maybe you were just...a Madman..."

"...a Queen...and a Box," Rory finished for her, to which she nodded. This remark made Romana smile.

"Amy and Rory, there's something you'd better understand about us," began the Doctor, "because it's important...and your lives may depend on it – we are _definitely_...a Madman, a Queen and a Box." They both stared as he laughed and rushed back to the Console. "Goodbye, Leadworth...hello, everything!"

With that, he slammed down a lever and the TARDIS dematerialised...taking the newly-formed TARDIS Crew to anywhere and anywhen in the Universe...

* * *

**A/N 1: Some of you will no doubt be wondering why I chose to put Rory on the TARDIS Crew right at the beginning rather than half-way into the fic. It's just that I think that Amy might have been even better than she already was if she was with Rory from the beginning - Amy/Rory is such a great pairing that I wanted to try and do it more justice than the show does. I just couldn't make the idea of Amy kissing the Doctor while Romana was around work in my head...and if it won't work in my head, how can I get it down onto the site? Apologies, NicoleR85.**

**A/N 2: As per the suggestion of Knight Writer 95, the likeness for Romana is Bella Thorne. My apologies to the stargate time traveller...but as described in Chapter 3, this Romana has the appearance of an adolescent ginger - Ruth Wilson is 32 years old...and most of the pictures of her show her as a brunette.**


	7. The Crying Girl

The Crying Girl

**_My _**_name is Amy Pond. When I was seven, I had two imaginary friends. Yesterday was the day before my wedding to Rory...and my imaginary friends came back, whisking me and Rory away on a journey through Space and Time..._

*DW*

**"****Now** do you believe us?" the Doctor asked Amy, who had just taken a Spacewalk outside the TARDIS – from which he had just pulled her back in. She had cast some doubt on whether the Capsule was actually a Spaceship...so the Doctor had invited her to test the theory.

"OK...your box is a Spaceship," Amy conceded. "It's really...really..."

"Definitely a Spaceship," Rory finished, gasping to recover from the shock of seeing Amy able to float just outside.

"We are in Space!" Amy cheered. Something then occurred to her. "What are we breathing?" she asked the two Time Lords.

"He extended the Air Shell," Romana told her. "You won't have trouble breathing anytime soon."

The Doctor soon found his attention fixed on an enormous behemoth of a Starship drifting nearby. The first thing he noticed was that the Starship was _far_ larger than any normal Star Cruiser – it was the size of an entire _Nation._ "Now _that's_ interesting," he told Romana, gesturing to the Starship.

_Quite,_ she replied via telepathy. _Starship UK...though looking at the Union Flag, St. Andrew's Cross isn't on it...looks like they wanted their own ship._

"29th Century – solar flares roast the Earth, and the entire Human Race packs its bags and move out till the weather improves," the elder Time Lord told Amy and Rory. "Whole Nations..."

"And we've just found one of those Star Nations," Romana continued. "This one's called Starship UK. Britain and Northern Ireland...reimagined and adapted for travel in the Galaxy..."

"That's not just a ship..._that's_ an idea! That's a whole Country, living and laughing and shopping. Searching the Stars for a new home..."

"Can we go out and see?" Amy asked them.

"Course we can. But first, there's a thing," the Doctor replied.

"What's that, then?" Rory asked.

"Thing One – we are observers only," he told them, walking back to the Console, the others following him. "That's the one rule I've always stuck to in all my travels. I never get involved in the affairs of other peoples or planets." Romana just snorted, clearly not believing _that_ bare-faced lie. But before she could comment on it, her fiancé's attention was diverted once again, this time by something he had seen on the Display. "Ooo, that's interesting!"

Romana took a glance at the Display herself...and saw a little girl, crying silently. There was definitely something amiss with that – children cried aloud if they needed or wanted attention...but if they were crying silently, they either thought the reason was shameful or unbearable for them. The Time Lady knew this as she had been a mother herself...whenever her son had been ashamed of having done something wrong, he had cried silently...

She stopped herself before she could go down that memory lane any further. The Past was too painful for her...if she wanted to move on, she would have to keep the memories buried. So doing, she headed outside. Upon realising that Amy and Rory had not yet followed, she and the Doctor gestured for them to follow knowing that the pair of Humans would see them through the Display...

"Welcome to London Market. You are being monitored," a cool male voiced droned on speaker throughout the Marketplace.

"We're in the Future," Amy cried in a whisper, transfixed in awe at the scope of the wondrous reality before her. "Like...hundreds of years in the Future!" Then a thought suddenly occurred to her. "We've been dead for centuries!"

"OK...not a thought I needed. Thanks, Amy," Rory muttered.

"Try not to think about it too much," Romana told them with a smile. "With Time Travel, you're only dead if no-one can reach you."

"Never mind dead, though – look at this place," the Doctor told the group. Isn't it wrong?"

"What's wrong?" Amy asked him. But it was Romana who answered.

"Come on, Amy. You've got to notice everything. Otherwise, you're just seeing but not observing. Pardon my reference to Sherlock Holmes," she added.

"No problem," Rory shrugged.

"Is it the bicycles?" Amy wondered, improvising wildly for an answer. The last time she checked, Starships didn't often have bicycles in any of the Sci-Fi movies she'd seen with Rory and Mels.

"A bit unusual on a Starship," conceded Romana.

"But not wrong," the Doctor added. "Life on a giant Starship. Back to basics. Bicycles, washing lines, wind-up streetlamps...but look _closer._ Secrets and shadows...lives led in fear..."

"A society twisted out of shape and stretched beyond belief," his fiancé continued. "All of which...is the sign of a Totalitarian state." Before she could comment further, the Doctor suddenly picked up a glass of water from a table and placed in onto the floor. Surprisingly, there were no ripples of vibration on the surface of the water. He then placed the glass back onto the table and continued walking, the other following close behind.

"Why did you just do that with the water?" Amy asked the elder Time Lord in confusion.

"Don't know...I think a lot," he replied, making Romana roll her eyes. "It's hard to keep track. Now...a Totalitarian state. Do you see it yet?"

This time, it was Rory who asked. "Do we see _what_ yet?"

The answer came from Romana. "Do you see _that?"_ she asked them, gesturing to the crying girl. Little did the four know that they were being observed by a mysterious figure hiding in plain sight...

*DW* **_a little later..._** *DW*

**"****One** little girl crying...so?" Amy asked the pair of Time Lords.

"Amy, the girl is crying _silently,"_ Romana pointed out. "Any parent knows that a child will cry if they want attention, are hurt, or scared. But when they cry silently..." She trailed off, not wanting to revisit the pains of the Past.

"It's because they just can't stop," the Doctor finished for her. He might have just about come to terms with the events of the Time War...but he knew for a fact that Romana had yet to do so herself.

"Are you two parents?" Amy inquired, unaware of the current thoughts plaguing their minds.

Rory took her to one side and whispered...but the Time Lords were able to discern what he said; "...think they _were_...don't think they are _still_..." The Nurse had _no idea_ how true his words were. The Humans then turned back to the Doctor and Romana. "So...back to the task at hand..."

Romana nodded. When she spoke again, her hands gestured to the environment around the crying girl. "All these parents are walking past her, which means they're either unwilling or unable to help her. My guess is that it's the former – even if they were unable, they'd _try._ But I doubt most of them are callous wretches, which brings us to the next question – why are they not helping her?" She made the appropriate hand gesture for Amy and Rory to supply an answer.

"Maybe...they're afraid of whatever's got her upset?" Rory guessed.

"Most likely possibility," the Time Lady acknowledged with a smile. Rory could be very good at joining the dots. And as for aspiring to be a Physician...that job required a lot of compassion – something that Romana's intuition told her the Nurse had ample of. "And if they're afraid of it, these people are not going to want to talk about it. That in turn means that the problem is hidden in plain sight." She finished, considering the principle of the Art of Disguise – it was entirely applicable to people _or_ problems...all of which was connected to how the Perception Filter worked. "How did I do, Doctor?" Romana asked her fiancé.

"You're on a roll," he replied. In terms of problem-solving, the Time Lady had come a long way from the girl who'd once overlooked the obvious when trying to locate the first Segment of the Key to Time.

"I learnt from the best," she shrugged, allowing him that compliment for teaching abilities. When she turned to look for the girl – Mandy Tanner, the Doctor had told her (evidently the elder Time Lord had done something akin to a pickpocket) – she had disappeared.

"Where'd she go?" asked Amy.

"Deck 207, Apple Sesame Block, Dwelling 54A," the Doctor replied. "You're looking for Mandy Tanner. This fell out of her pocket when I accidentally bumped into her."

"Don't you mean deliberately?" Romana asked him with a teasing smirk. "And it took you four goes." The elder Time Lord frowned, so his fiancé took up the slack to explain what to do. "Amy, ask Mandy about the Robots in the Booths," she gestured subtly to the smiling Robots. "Smilers, the Booths say. They're scattered throughout the Starship."

"Everything else here is battered and filthy, but no-one's laid a finger on the Booths," the Doctor continued. "Not a footprint within two feet of them. Ask Mandy – why are people scared of the things in the Booths?" He turned to the other two in the group. "Romana, Rory...stick around the Marketplace, you're the Rearguard. Keep in touch."

"Which reminds me," his fiancé spoke at this point. "Amy, Rory...may I borrow your phones a moment?" Both of them handed their phones to Romana, where upon she pressed her Sonic Screwdriver to them and activated it. When she had finished, she handed them back. "Universal Roaming," she explained. "You two can now call anyone, anywhere and anywhen..."

"As long as you have the Number," her fellow Time Lord finished. "I'm going to try and stay out of trouble...badly." Romana sniggered at this – it _was_ a first, him _admitting_ that he couldn't stay out of trouble.

"So is this how it works, Doctor?" Amy asked him. "You never interfere in the affairs of other peoples or planets...unless there're children crying?"

"That's where you've got it wrong, Amy," Romana answered before he could say anything. "We _always_ interfere in the affairs of other peoples and planets..._especially_ if there're children crying." This got a smile from Amy, and a puzzled look from Rory. "So...to it..."


	8. Meeting Liz 10

Meeting Liz 10

**As** Rory and Romana were going to be the eyes and ears of the TARDIS Crew for this trip, it was essential that they remain in the Marketplace – for that was where a large majority of the Populace of Starship UK would be going about their daily routines. However, they were also abundantly aware that this was a Police State, which meant that the eyes and ears of the State Police would be everywhere. Therefore, Romana had decided that they change into outfits that would be less conspicuous – the Time Lady _definitely_ needed to leave behind the velvet ladies frock coat and the matching bow tie.

This decision did receive a question from Rory. "Why do I need to change? My clothes weren't exactly noticeable," he'd replied, having had to slip into a different pair of jeans and a hoodie, as well as having to put on a cap.

"Security cameras could have seen you in the Marketplace," Romana told him in the Console Room of the TARDIS. "The Art of Disguise is in knowing how to hide in plain sight...which means getting rid of anything that could attract unwanted attention." She herself had chosen a pair of ladies jeans, a light blue poloneck jumper, a suede sports jacket and a pair of Converse All Stars. Just for nostalgia's sake, she had put on a scarf as well – just _a_ scarf, not a scarf that was the practical equivalent of a dead snake wrapped around your neck. Looking at what she had put together, Romana thought it was rather good for a method of disguise. To top it off, she had tied her ginger hair in a bun and put a beret over it – the last time she looked ginger hair wasn't one of the more common hair colours.

Rory nodded, accepting the logic in her answer as he followed her out of the TARDIS. But nothing could have prepared Romana for what he asked a few minutes after they had sat down on a bench. "Romana," he began, with no small amount of trepidation, knowing what he was about to say was a personal matter, "when Amy asked if you and the Doctor were parents-"

"You want to know what was going on in my mind at that point, don't you?" the Time Lady cut to the point of the conversation. Another nod from Rory confirmed what she said. "Yes...at one point in our lives, the Doctor and I had a son. Another thing you and Amy need to understand, Rory, is that since he and I are not Human beings, we don't have Human lifespans. Our race were called Time Lords...you can see the implication?"

"Yeah," Rory breathed after merely a moment. "Kind of implies a race that can control Time. And if they can control Time, they can control the length of their lifespan." Then something occurred to him. "But...how is it you both look Human?"

"Technically, Rory, you look Time Lord – we evolved first, and lasted a good ten million years," Romana told him.

"What happened to all of them?" the Nurse hesitated as he asked this. If their people were gone, it was no doubt a touchy subject.

The answer was one word...and one word only; "War." The Time Lady then decided to elaborate. "It was a war that spanned everywhere and everywhen...how it remained unseen to most in the Universe escapes me. The Time War...a war nobody could win. I once led my people as President against our enemies...but I was eventually deposed by a brutal, violent madman. On top of that, what we were up against was best equated to a Universal Cockroach."

"So...an enemy that just cannot be utterly defeated," Rory surmised. "I'm sorry," he added.

"What for, Rory?" Romana asked, with a look of confusion. "You don't have to be sorry for something that happened before you were born."

"No, I'm...sorry I asked," the Nurse amended.

"It's alright," Romana waved him off as her gaze drifted. Truth be told, she probably shouldn't have talked about the subject. The abject savageries of the Time War were still fresh in her mind. While this new incarnation had been a godsend – especially considering the fact that it could hide her soul's pain behind a façade of flirtatious mischief – she had spent 37 years in a Fob Watch, with nothing to focus on but those horrors. The only solution had been to completely shut off while her Human persona lived her life.

Before she could brood anymore on the matter, Romana spotted a figure covered in a regal red cloak walking through the Marketplace. Upon looking closer, she noticed that the figure was following Mandy Tanner, the girl who had been crying earlier. "Rory...do you see what I see?" she asked her new confidante.

"Yeah...the woman wearing a red cloak and porcelain mask," Rory confirmed. Romana turned her head to him. "I'd...actually been looking for some Time while you were staring off into Space," he admitted.

The Time Lady grinned. "That's one of the reasons I asked the Doctor to bring you along as well," she admitted. Rory gave her a curious look. "A lot of people see...but they don't observe. You, on the other hand, observe very well...witness what happened with Prisoner Zero."

"Well...not everyone in Leadworth was a Nurse trying to figure out why eight coma patients were up and walking through the Streets," the Nurse shrugged her off.

"Still...a very good skill to have," Romana told him. "Now...shall we find out where our robed friend is going?"

*DW*

**It** took a fair bit of effort to keep up with the robed figure. It soon became abundantly clear to Romana that she knew the Streets and knew them well. She had also proven herself aptly able to make any pursuers lose track of her – indeed, there had been one occasion when they had nearly been thrown off. And not for the reason one might think, this had Romana confused. This person was clearly a woman who could lose them if she wanted to...it was almost like she wanted them to follow while making sure nobody else would. As a result, Romana couldn't help but wonder if their disguises had already been blown.

Eventually, though, the robed figure stopped near Mandy. "It's alright, love," the woman told the girl. "It's only me...and the people following me."

These words confirmed Romana's suspicion about the disguise she and Rory had worn being blown. "How did you know we were following?" Rory asked the figure.

"You didn't notice how you only _nearly_ lost me, then?" the woman replied wryly. "If I had wanted to shake off the pair of you then I would have done already." She then held out her hand, preparing for a handshake. "Liz 10, by the way."

"Rory Williams," Rory accepted the handshake. "And pardon me, but...Liz 10?"

"Elizabeth X, Rory," Romana supplied the answer. "She's the Queen of England." The Time Lady then held out her hand. "My name is Romanadvoratrelundar," she introduced herself, making the others raise their eyebrows (both on each forehead).

But Liz smiled. "Honoured," she replied. "Though...you're not how the stories of the Royal Family described ya." Now it was Romana's turn to raise her eyebrows. "They said you were blonde," Liz clarified. That answered the Time Lady's query before she'd even asked – _regeneration,_ she thought.

"I have actually been blonde, you know," Romana told the Queen, thinking of her 2nd life...the one that had been in a relationship with the 4th Doctor...and later with the 8th. She stopped her train of thought before it could go on any further. "Where did the Doctor and Amy get to?"

"They got sent down below because they hit the Protest Button," Mandy told her.

"What's below?" Rory asked.

"No-one knows," Liz 10 replied. "You will remember that the Doctor put a glass of water on the floor, Lady Romana?" The Time Lady nodded. "He then went straight to the Engine Room and examined the appliances on the wall – they're all empty. He reached the conclusion that there was no Engine at all."

"Right," Romana could only say at the ample evidence provided for the Totalitarian condition of the Star Nation. "If they manage to get out, where will they end up?" This question was directed at Liz 10.

"Rejection Pipe," the Queen supplied. The answer made both Romana and Rory's spines tingle with dread. What would they be rejected by? What could be on the lowest Deck of Starship UK? But before Romana could ask herself anymore questions, Liz 10 spoke again. "I put a Tracking Bug on him. Follow me..."

*DW*

**When** the foursome found the Doctor and Amy, they were both drenched in sick. From this, Romana was able to determine that whatever was being used to propel the Star Nation was organic...possibly alive. But for the more immediate concern, both of them were being cornered by a pair of Smilers...though with those faces, they weren't so much _Smilers_ as _Scowlers._

However, before either Scowler could do either of them any harm, Liz 10 pulled out a pair of blasters and promptly shot them with the unerring finesse of a Gunslinger. Both the Doctor and Amy turned to the foursome. "Look who it is," he commented to Romana. "What happened to the velvet frock coat?"

"The Art of Disguise, Doctor," his fiancé told him, smirking. "It's in knowing how to hide in plain sight." She grimaced as she picked up the smell from his drenched clothes. "Forgive me if I don't hug you right now – I'll give you a kiss later."

The Doctor smiled at the thought, but his train of thought was interrupted by Liz 10. "You must be Amy," the Queen commented, stare fixed on Amy. "Liz. Liz 10."

"Hi," Amy replied, before she noticed Rory. She moved to pull him into an embrace...then thought better of it, given that she was covered in sick.

"You OK?" Rory asked her.

"Aside from the fact that I just got thrown up out of a huge mouth," she shot a glare at the Doctor, "I'm just fine." The glare became a smile.

Before anyone could comment further, Romana noticed that the Scowlers were beginning to get back up again. "We ought to leave," she told the others.

Liz 10 seemed to be thinking the same thing. "Come on, they're repairing. It doesn't take them long. Let's move." The Doctor, Romana, Amy, Rory and Mandy began to follow her. "The Doctor...an old drinking buddy of Henry 12...had tea and scones with Liz 2...Vicky was a bit on the fence about you, weren't she? Knighted and exiled you on the same day. And so much for the Virgin Queen, you bad, bad boy!"

Romana sent a stare at her fiancé – one that he didn't fail to notice. _I didn't realise you were still alive then,_ the Doctor replied telepathically. _And that point in my life is a bit of a blur, somehow._ This answer satisfied her for now. "Liz 10..." he switched to verbal communication.

"Liz 10, yeah," the Queen replied. "Elizabeth X. And...down!" Everyone ducked as she shot a pair of Scowlers with her blasters. "I'm the bloody Queen, mate. Basically...I rule."

"A Queen who seems to have picked up the mannerisms of a Gunslinger from a Spaghetti Western," Romana couldn't help but note.

Liz smiled at the reference. "Some of the best films were Spaghetti Westerns," she replied, before focusing on the task at hand. "There's a High-Speed Vator through here." She led them down a Corridor, only stopping to look at a pair of tentacles bashing against the grating. "Oh yeah, there's these things. Any ideas?"

"Doctor, I saw one of these up top," Amy spoke up at this point. "There was a hole in the Road...like it had burst through like a root."

"Exactly like a root," the Doctor commented. "It's all one creature...the same one we were inside, reaching out. It must be growing through the Mechanisms of the entire Ship."

"What...like an infestation?" Liz 10 asked him, horrified at the thought of where all the missing of Starship UK could end up. "Someone's helping it. Feeding it...feeding my subjects to it!" She stormed away. "Come on! We've got to keep moving!"

Romana could not help but be reminded of a previous adventure with the Doctor, many years ago, on the planet Chloris. She recalled learning that the effective ruler of the planet, Lady Adrasta, had tipped a Tythonian Ambassador into the Pit to gain exclusive control of his metal-making abilities in an effort to ensure that the monopoly of metal on Chloris – a world where plant-based food sources were abundant, but metals scarce – would remain hers. However, there was one problem with this comparison – why would a Star Nation with no Engine have a creature beneath the lowest Deck? Unless...the creature was the one moving it?


End file.
